Issue when moving ToC to back

[Kawasaki]

I’m reposting a condensed version in the hope that AmberV will come to my rescue again.

I made up a blank page and added <$toc>, called it Contents and moved it to the back of the documents in the manuscript. But after compiling I got a notice saying “Kindle failed to generate a .mobi file at the expected location.”

I eventually figured out the ToC page was the culprit. When I moved it to Research, compiling returned to normal.

Any advice on WHERE to position ToC at the back and also what its indentation should be regards the Manuscript? I’ve tried various locations without success.
Additional info: I use a page break before the ToC page and As is, as was pointed out by someone who successfully moved his ToC to the back (read on the Internet).

[AmberV]

I can’t think of why that would mess anything up, and indeed with a quick test of my own, I get a valid Mobi file with the contents at the back. I also tried disabling the HTML contents option in the Layout compile pane (I recall you switching that off, not sure if this is the same project), but that didn’t mess anything up, save for not generating a ToC within that file, as expected.

To get a better idea of precisely why things are failing, I’d enable the log output option in the KindleGen compile pane. The log file will be placed in the same location you compile to.

By the way, this might make the whole thing academic, but Amazon “forbids”, in their publishing guidelines, putting the ToC in the back:

@Publishing on Kindle: Guidelines for Publishers

Place the HTML TOC towards the beginning of the book and not at the end of the book. This ensures that a customer paging through the book from the beginning encounters the TOC naturally. Incorrect placement of the TOC affects the accuracy of the “Last Page Read” feature. Correct placement ensures that the TOC appears in sample downloads of the book.

I have no idea how strictly they enforce that.

[Kawasaki]

What a bummer on the Amazon no-no to ToC at the back of the book. Maybe it’s because of the problem I cited?!

The thing is I have 110 chapters, so I really don’t want pages of contents right in the beginning. (Yes, it is the same project I/you mentioned.) Then it looks like I will have to do just that, or delete Contents (as first planned) and have readers rely on the novel Parts with linked Chapters only. The thing is that with some Kindle readers, the human reader will expect to find something in the icon for ToC if I choose the latter.

If anyone has advice or a suggestion, I’d be grateful to hear it.